There’s been plenty of talk about who would be peddling the new Samsung Galaxy Tab ever since its debut at the IFA Berlin trade show in September. Well, rumors have now been put to rest with the announcement that AT&T plans to offer the device just in time for the holiday season.

Powered by the Android 2.2 platform, the Samsung Galaxy Tab features a 7-inch enhanced TFT touch screen, 1Ghz Hummingbird application processor, support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Media Hub - Samsung’s own content service that offers a library of films and TV programming, Samsung Social Hub, dual cameras, and many additional features.

Initially, industry pundits conjectured that the Galaxy Tab would wind up in the hands of Verizon after a screenshot surfaced allegedly showing Samsung’s tablet listed in Verizon’s inventory system. Then the popular blog Engadget grabbed headlines with this news:

“Thanks to a branded snapshot from the carrier's internals, we can confirm that the Tab will indeed be sold on Ma Bell, and it (along with three other new Android devices) will ship ‘prior to December.’” 

AT&T will sell the Galaxy Tab in its company-owned retail stores and online at www.att.com in the coming months with other distribution partners to be announced at launch. Pricing for the tablet and AT&T data plan options will also be announced closer to the launch date.

“We’re looking forward to expanding our computing device portfolio and giving our AT&T customers more great choices with this innovative device,” said Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T's emerging devices, in a statement. “By teaming with Samsung Mobile to deliver the Samsung Galaxy Tab, we’re equipping our customers with new and exciting ways to connect to the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network.”

Going head-to-head with Apple’s iPad, key features of the Samsung Galaxy Tab include PC-like web browsing, access to many forms of multimedia content, e-mail, SMS and social networking capabilities, and ATT&T Connection Manager, which automatically connects users to AT&T Hot Spots to better manage data usage.